EU does OI

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9155427933166618966.post-33610735334645058842008-02-12T11:17:00.001-08:002008-02-12T11:20:43.431-08:00EU does OIThe European Commission has launched its <a href="http://www.enterprise-europe-network.ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm">“Enterprise Europe Network”</a> to help 23 million small/medium enterprises in the EU.Parts of this seem to be standard EC industrial policy. But there is a wrinkle: recognizing the interdependence of these firms as part of the network of suppliers and complementors for Europe’s large multinationals. As PublicTechnology.net noted: <blockquote>Finally, many multinational companies are opening up their innovation systems so that the 'Open Innovation' concept is now becoming a reality for business. Many multinationals have established structures to purchase or license innovative products with third parties. Brokering deals with these large companies requires skills, experience and a negotiating power that many SMEs do not possess, despite the potential of their innovations.</blockquote>So this hits at the fundamental synergy between little companies and big companies, as with biotech startups and big pharma. The little companies (as in <a href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=teece+1986">Teece 1986</a>) lack the resources to commercialize their internally-generated innovations, while big firms need more and more innovations to grow and their corporate R&D labs are too big, too slow, or too inefficient to generate all that they need.As a researcher sitting here in the US, a standard problem is that it’s hard to tell whether to take these government initiatives seriously. It reminds me a little of a paper I <a href="http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp7.html">wrote back in 1994</a> (<a href="http://www.indiana.edu/%7Etisj/readers/full-text/12-3%20west.pdf">published in 1996</a>): Japanese policymakers were reacting rapidly to US “National Information Infrastructure” policy, even though that policy was clearly going to have little impact on how US companies built the Internet.<div class="blogger-post-footer">From the researchers of <a href="http://www.OpenInnovation.net">OpenInnovation.net</a><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9155427933166618966-3361073533464505884?l=blog.openinnovation.net'/></div>Joel Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03837038327488766775noreply@blogger.com2